


Falter

by Stripe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Trollstuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 17:50:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6529981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stripe/pseuds/Stripe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Roesae Lalond, and you falter three times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theskyshouldbeviolet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theskyshouldbeviolet/gifts).



Your name is Roesae Lalond, though the title has always felt strange to you. Rose falls much more easily off of the tongue, even if it should feel alien. It's a secret that you keep close to your chest. It would not do to have one of the Condesce's prized commanders feeling anything but one hundred percent troll. 

You are vicious. You are ruthless. You are cold, calculating, a well-oiled machine. You have no interest in others, even though everyone under your command has a near obsession with quadrants. You aren't at a lack of suitors; when the drones come calling, you pick your most adamant red and black suitors, humor them each for one night, and then casually send in the order for them to be moved to a different command. You have dabbled in auspitizing in order to keep the peace among your troops, but you have found it more efficient to reassign those who are causing trouble than to bring your relationship status into it. 

As for the pale quadrant, you haven't bothered. You have no desire to open up to others, and you are too cold to lend an interested ear to another party. Besides, you are under control. What possible use could you have for a moirail?

\----

You falter once.

You're stationed on a moon for supplies and to change out some personnel. You spot him in the cafeteria, laughing over a grub loaf, and for just a moment your eyes meet. He's a blue blood, standing a good head above the rest of his colleagues, with messy hair and a sharp, disorganized set of teeth. You feel like you know him already, and he smiles at you. It's softer than you expect, almost intimate, and your heart- no, your blood pusher- flutters in an unfamiliar way. 

"Commander Lalond?"

You turn sharply to the olive blood at your side. "I- ah- yes? What is it?"

"I asked when you think we will be disembarking."

"...Perhaps give it another day or so. I've found some... unexpected business to attend to."

You track him down later, just as the distant twin suns begin to peak over the horizon of the moon. He grins at you, like he was expecting this. 

His name is Johnen Egbart, but your brain automatically corrects it to "John." The moment he calls you "Rose," you invite him back to your respiteblock. The two of you set up a pile made of the one soft thing you allow yourself to own - a series of collectible plushies based on squids. They feel nostalgic to you somehow. He paps your face, you fall back into his arms, and you tell him everything.

He understands. 

The following night, you discuss a transfer. It's tricky to handle, as John is of a high rank in his own battalion, but the name Lalond smoothes things along nicely. By the time your ship takes off for the darkness of space once again, John has taken up residence in your commander's quarters, and the two of you exchange stories in the sopor of a life that never was.

With John around, something feels right. But it doesn't feel complete. Not yet.

\----

You falter twice.

You're stationed on a planet near the homeworld, a training ground for new members of the Condesce's army. You mean to pick up a few extra recruits for your ship - the best of the best - but during training, one of the trainees gets cut and bleeds red instead of rust.

He's brought to you, naturally. You are the highest ranking officer present, and an issue of this calibre needs to go through you first. The mutant is thrust before you, his hands cuffed, and you briefly consider the rumors of the Sufferer. You know, like every good seadweller, that mutants need to be culled, without question. What you should do is pull out your needles and ram one through his windpipe.

He's staring up at you with those freakishly red eyes at you, practically challenging you to do it. But you can see his blood, still dripping lazily down his arm, and you feel like that's what should be running through your veins instead of the unnatural purple humming underneath your skin. Your hand twitches around your needles, but you know you can't do it.

"S-send him to John- Johnen." You can't tell if the trolls around you heard that stutter, so you look up at them and filter all of the cool rage that your caste has granted you, to silence anybody who might think to question it. "Johnen will know what to do with him. Leave them together, and we'll never have to lay eyes on this waste to society again."

You can only hope that John will know what to do.

It's hours before you slide back into your respiteblock and see them. The mutant is perched in John's lap, trembling as the blueblood winds a hand through his hair and shooshes him. By all means, you should be incensed by this pale infidelity, and troll culture states that you have full rights to behead both of them. What happens instead is that you tell the mutant to "move over," because there's enough room on John's lap for the both of you.

His name is Daveed Stride, which you immediately know to translate to Dave. He tells you how jealous he is that you ended up being on top of the caste system due to a lucky throw of the genetic dice, and you admit you would gladly switch places with him to have the correct color of blood flowing through your veins.

John paps both of your faces aggressively until you calm down, and the three of you just manage to fit into your recuperacoon together. 

Dave is hidden in your room until you reach your next stop, at which point he is reintroduced to the crew with a new name, title, and a few more precautions to make sure he doesn't leak anymore blood out in the open. If anybody suspects anything, they don't say it out loud. After all, who would dare question their commander?

More pieces slot into place with the two of them there, but it's still not complete. Not yet.

\----

You only falter one more time.

The mistake which allows the pirates onto the ship isn't yours - it's a navigator's, whose teal blood is now spilling onto the ground in front of you. No, your mistake comes later.

You are able to recognize the owner of the pirate ship by the insignia - a barkbeast insignia, done in green. The notorious Jaydhe Harlee, a rebellious jade-blooded troll who took to space. You've been briefed about her ideals, toxic to the ideas of the empire. She believes that the Empress is in the wrong. She believes that the caste system should be done away with and that the Condesce should relinquish her hold on acquired alien planets. Naturally, she focuses her attacks on military fleet, and there are rumors she's been converting new recruits from former military personnel. 

Your ship is her most recent target. You can only hope that John and Dave are safe - either surrendered or hidden away where the rebels won't know to find them. You want to look for them to protect them, but there are more pressing matters.

Namely, the barrel of the gun pressed right to your temple. 

"Give me one reason I shouldn't blow your seadweller brains out over the floor right now!"

You take in a sharp breath and look up at the troll threatening you, sure you can pull out your needles and end this. It has to be Jaydhe - but as soon as her eyes meet yours, recognition rushes in. Her mouth drops open into a little "o," and even with fangs, those buck teeth look so familiar.

"Jade," you say. 

You can hear her breath catch. "You're-"

What you say next goes against all of your training, all of your sweeps and years of military indoctrination. Never give into the enemy. 

But Jade is not the enemy here. 

"I- I surrender."

She drops her gun. 

The process of changing affiliations goes surprisingly quickly. You only need to toss a few crew members into the vastness of space - the rest are either already sympathetic to the cause, or at least trust you enough as a commander to follow your lead. 

You find Dave and John, tucked safely away in your room. When Jade meets them for the first time, she starts crying, big green tears that stain her cheeks and the front of John's shirt when he goes in for a hug. 

You don't cry, of course. As a seadweller your eyes simply need to reestablish proper moisture and salinity levels sometimes. That's it.

(When you tell this to Dave, he gives you a look before shoosh-papping you into telling the truth.) 

Once the ship is settled, the four of you converge on your room, and stay up talking until you are too exhausted to stay awake anymore. Jade says she'll rearrange her fleet so that she can stay with you. John says he'll find a bigger recuperacoon. 

You laugh and cling to them, and you can't remember the last time you felt so human.

Your name is Rose Lalonde, even if your skin is gray and your hair is black and your teeth are sharp as a shark's. And when you curl up among John, Dave, and Jade, you finally feel complete.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Polyswap 2016 for this prompt:
> 
> "Trollstuck. Soulmate AU. Rose is a powerful, renowned commander, in charge of a ship and merciless in every invasion the Condesce orders. She stutters for the first time when she shares a smile with the highblood John across a room, all sharp teeth but with none of the sharpness. The second time she stutters is when a lowblood traitor named Dave is brought to her feet, and she can't order an execution when his eyes beg her to. The third, and last time she stutters is when a midblood pirate named Jade breaks into her ship, her voice just a tad too soft when she holds Rose at gunpoint."
> 
> "Soulmate AU" turned out to be a little bit more like "Reincarnation AU," but hopefully you still like it!


End file.
